Arsenal's squad for the Europa League knockout phase has been confirmed and there's one major surprise.

Given the club's injury crisis in central defence, the omission of Konstantinos Mavropanos is notable as that leaves Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis and Skhodran Mustafi as the three senior men.

The reason why the Greek defender hasn't been included is because of an UEFA rule which states a 25-man squad must have a minimum of eight locally-trained players and if a club cannot name eight, the total number of players in the squad reduces accordingly.

Read More

With Emiliano Martinez - who counted as one of the eight locally-trained players - leaving to join Reading on loan for the remainder of the season during the January transfer window, the Gunners' squad has been reduced to 24 as a result.

Mavropanos can't make the 'B-list' either as he doesn't meet certain UEFA Requirements.

UEFA rules state that: "A player may be registered on List B if he is born on, or after, 1 January 1997 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday (players aged 16 may be submitted if they have been registered with the club for the previous two years). Clubs are entitled to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season, but the list must be submitted by no later than 24:00CET the day before a match."

January loan signing Denis Suarez does make the squad as he looks for a repeat of the 2014/15 season when he lifted the trophy under the guidance of Unai Emery.

Injured players such as Hector Bellerin, Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding are set to miss the remainder of the campaign, but have been kept in the squad, probably due to them being locally-trained players.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Eddie Nketiah are among those included in the b-list, so are likely to feature as Emery looks to guide the north London outfit back into the Champions League via the Europa League route.

Konstantinos Mavropanos during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Arsenal (Image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

The Gunners have been paired against BATE Borisov in the round of 32 stage, with the first-leg taking place in Belarus later this month.

Arsenal's confirmed Europa League squad:

List A

Goalkeepers

Petr Cech

Bernd Leno

Deyan Iliev

Defenders

Hector Bellerin

Sokratis

Laurent Koscielny

Shkodran Mustafi

Stephan Lichtsteiner

Rob Holding

Nacho Monreal

Carl Jenkinson

Sead Kolasianc

Midfielders

Mohamed Elneny

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Aaron Ramsey

Mesut Ozil

Lucas Torreira

Alex Iwobi

Denis Suarez

Matteo Guendouzi

Granit Xhaka

Forwards

Alexandre Lacazette

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Danny Welbeck

Keep up to date with the latest news, features and exclusives from football.london via the free football.london app for iPhone and Android .